I feel like Im incapable to complete any of my coursework. Im studying computer science so its mainly programming which I struggle with I can be sitting whole day over 1 assignment and I would get nothing done cause its too confusing for me and I can't get my head around it, I find it difficult to come up with any solutions myself so I mainly end up looking for similar solutions for the related work which comes under plagiarism if I do so. What should I do in my situation?

Last edited by DeveloperCSS; 30-10-2017 at 22:18.
Reason: additional info

Have you been to see a personal tutor at all? Most of the time the source of these problems can be a fundamental misunderstanding about the way something works - and this can be easily remedied with a short discussion. Course coordinators and personal tutors are genuinely there to help, so drop them an email and they'll probably set up a meeting and hopefully rectify the underlying issue. Try to do this earlier rather than later so you're not left with an awkward fait accompli - I've been the student who emails a tutor two or three days before submission date saying 'I don't understand'. It doesn't go down to well! Get in early.

What kind of task is it you're doing; I know you say it's programming, but is it something that any of us can give a vague pointer with?

Also, sitting there won't get you anywhere - I learned that the hard way! When I did my undergraduate computing degree I spent many hours, early on, staring at a screen wishing it'd solve itself (it doesn't). Develop a habit of getting up, grabbing a bottle of water or a coffee. Just walk somewhere, get a breather and come back to it with a fresh brain. A fifteen minute break can honestly make the world of difference to how well you approach a problem. It's a habit I've carried through to postgraduate computing, and it's been my saving grace at times.

Also, if you have a rough idea of what you're to do, but don't know how to implement it in whatever language you're programming it in, split it down into little bits and then pseudocode it first. Then implement it thereafter. Getting the logic is the key, let implementation and syntax follow.

(Original post by DeveloperCSS)
I know what I need to do its just the difficult part is to get to figuring out code for it.

Psuedocode it, and then implement it in code. What language are you programming in?

If you're struggling with the syntax of the language - which I would argue is the issue if you're saying that you know what you're doing, but it's just getting it into code - then that's simply a case of practice makes perfect. Programming is very similar to learning a foreign language. You might understand what you mean, and what you want to say (so, in coding terms what you want to implement) but the grammar (or in coding; syntax) of the language just simply comes with use.

I programmed in Java throughout my undergraduate, and I wouldn't have called myself competent in Java until around 3rd into 4th year.

- You say that you know what you're doing, but struggle to put it into code. I would say with command line type languages, your best bet is to write down logical steps in English and then translate it to Bash at a later step, from each of your logical steps.

- You said that you can spend all day and get nothing done. Take more frequent breaks. Go a walk, get some food, speak to a tutor. Anything, just to come back to it fresh.

These are about the only things any of us will be able to properly advise you on, as we have no context about the problem, and Bash is quite an unusual language choice, I'd have thought, for a university assignment.

Good luck either way. Go speak to a tutor, honestly, it's far safer to do that sooner rather than later.

(Original post by DeveloperCSS)
Its literally just getting bash to count occurrence of every palindrome in a text file and count them in descending order.

Entertaingly, there’s a question on StackOverflow about exactly this problem, posted last week. Your teacher appears to have replied stating that the question being posted online violates plagiarism regulations. However, the teacher has said if anyone has issues with the assignment to approach him/her! (No, genuinely, I’m not joking! - see bottom response in attached image!). I’m reluctant to link the page here, as I feel that kind of defeats the purpose of your teacher asking for it to be removed - but it’s easy enough to find. I think this simply reiterates what I said earlier: go see your module coordinator and they’ll help out!